“When they leak information to the press in order to blow one up, they are putting law enforcement lives in jeopardy, they are risking their lives,” the DHS secretary reminded the public.
She explained that in order to find the “leakers,” she and her team have been looking into and questioning anyone who might have had access to the leaked information.
They have also used every “tool” and “every tactic that we have,” such as administering polygraph tests and going through emails and other electronic correspondence.
“It’s incredible how these bureaucrats who want to halt the efforts we’re making to ensure American safety will sell each other out if it’s only to protect themselves,” Noem said.
“Don’t worry, I’m doing everything I can to find these leakers and get rid of them so that we can do our work and our law enforcement officers and agents can do it safely,” she said in closing.
Details of planned raids were leaked to the public last month as U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) started getting ready for deportation operations, starting the day after President Donald Trump’s second inauguration. T
he announcement of the raid in The Wall Street Journal forced the postponement of an ICE operation scheduled in Chicago. The next week, deportation operations in Chicago were personally led by former ICE chief and border czar Tom Homan.
At least 100 members of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TDA) were the target of another ICE raid in Aurora, Colorado, which is located just outside of Denver.
However, the gang was directly informed about the raid, and only one TDA member was ultimately taken into custody. Additionally, an ICE raid in Los Angeles, the birthplace of the infamously violent Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang, was put in jeopardy due to press leaks.
At the time, Homan and Noem both hypothesized that dishonest FBI agents might be to blame. “The FBI is so corrupt,” said Noem. To prevent leaks and bring these dishonest deep state agents to the highest legal level,
we will cooperate with all relevant agencies. Additionally, Homan acknowledged that the FBI was the source of the leak because “some of the information we’re receiving tends to lead toward the FBI.”
Homan and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi have previously stated that criminal prosecutions may be necessary, despite Noem’s commitment on Monday to fire those accountable for the leaks. The U.S.
Department of Justice (DOJ) has “opened up a criminal investigation, and they have promised that not only will this person lose their job and lose their pension, they will go to jail,” according to Homan’s report following the leaks. “If you leaked it, we will find out who you are, and we will come after you,” Bondi said, pledging to prosecute those involved.
The Heritage Foundation’s Director of the Border Security and Immigration Center, Lora Ries, stated in an interview with The Washington Stand that “those who leaked details of ICE raids should be prosecuted.”
“They are obstructing a federal proceeding in violation of 18 U.S.C. sections 2 and 1505, and they are obstructing justice, which is a violation of 18 U.S.C. sec. 1512(c)(2) and (k),” she clarified. Ries went on, “Leakers and doxers see their obstruction as low risk, high reward because they haven’t been punished in a number of years.”
To stop the behavior, we need to make some very public examples. Because leftist organizations will soon rehire them, firing them is insufficient.
Ries came to the conclusion that they ought to be “publicly arrested, prosecuted, fired, have their security clearance revoked, have any federal retirement revoked, and be prohibited from future government employment, grants, and contracts.”
